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Hello there! I'm Kathleen, a former art teacher and co-creator of two young boys. I'm perpetually in search of creative ways to spice up our daily lives, and always in search of a good cup of coffee and a knitting project. Join us in our adventures in making and doing, and making do.

March 22, 2010

Blast Off! KidsCraft Shuttle Imagination Playhouse {Giveaway}

One of the perks of this blog is getting to try out really fun things that I normally wouldn't have even heard of, like anti-microbial gloves and bath towels shaped like firetrucks, and of course cardboard rocket ship playhouses.What level of awesomeness is that? The Shuttle Imagination Playhouse from KidsCraft comes packed flat, and is basically a few sheets of punched cardboard that get slotted together without the use of tools or glues. It's so simple that a toddler can help. Or at least not be too annoying when he's in the way. :)This is S's favorite place in the house at the moment. He likes going inside and pushing his cars on the floor.Unlike a plain cardboard box, the rocket ship playhouse has shapes cut out on the sides of it, like stars and comets, which make it brighter inside.And of course more fun to peek out at mom and dad.The best part is that you can paint or color it! We haven't done this yet, but I see so many possibilities here, and a great afternoon activity. The 100% recycled cardboard was left blank on purpose so kids and adults could personalize their playhouses.I'm thinking we might do this at S's birthday party this weekend, letting the kids go wild with coloring it as a fun party activity.KidsCraft also makes a plain-Jane Creation Cottage playhouse too, which is very sweet and would be great to turn into a post office, veterinarian's office, ice cream stand, or whatever tickles your fancy. And once the kids tired of their design, you could just paint over it.The only issues I see with the Shuttle Imagination playhouse is that it is a bit larger than I expected (we have a small house, so that's more of the issue), and that the cardboard area under the door takes a beating.The doors aren't flush against the floor, so I imagine that this panel will be ripped sooner than the rest of the playhouse from S going in and out of it so often. He's not that skilled at climbing over it, as older kids might be, so he often catches his leg on it. But I'm sure I can just tape it up or reinforce it with another piece of cardboard.

But I do like that when this playhouse is worn down, I can take it apart, flatten the cardboard and recycle it. This is definitely one of the coolest things we've gotten to try out in our house. With SoJo's birthday party coming up, I think the party guests will definitely enjoy playing in the Imagination Shuttle.

Follow @KidsCraftUSA on Twitter and tweet this giveaway, leaving a link to your tweet in the comments. You can tweet once per day (leave a comment each day). You can copy and paste my tweet if you'd like: Win an out-of-this-world cardboard Rocket Ship Playhouse ($69.95) from @KidsCraftUSA http://goo.gl/fb/jA5L @katydidandkid #giveaway

US Postal addresses only.

You must do the first entry in order to enter ("I want to win, thanks!" comments will NOT be considered). You will have until Sunday April 4th at 11:59pm EST to enter. The winners will be chosen via random number generator the next day and notified by email. I'll also post the winners on my blog HERE. If I don't hear back from the winner within 72 hours, I'll pick another. Disclosure: KidsCraft sent us a complementary Shuttle Imagination for review purposes.

The Creation Cottage is lovely. The little chimney is so cute. I learned that the company was part of Astra, and was pleased to see the listing of the best toys of 2010 through their site: http://www.astratoy.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=281&Itemid=498

My kids would love one of these! I think they would like the Shuttle Imagination the best. I learned that KidsCraft works with other eco-friendly companies for the components of their product - great!greenlancer at comcast dot net

i like the creation cottage because it is not as tall and my house can't take a big rocket. I learned that Kidscraftusa partnered with trees fir the future and each purchase will have a new tree planted.

Well I love the rocket ship one the best!!! I also like the idea of soy crayons. I learned that there are pictures to look at of kids having fin and being createive with the productlynnnjoe@hotmail.com